Connection

This was the right door, right? Slater examined the other doors in the hallway, but the directions Lupus had gave before he sent Slater off lined up with this one alone. Should I yell something inside first? That was the first idea that came to mind, as it tended to be his first option with Lillian back home. However, realizing he was in unfamiliar territory, he thought it better just to knock.

His fist turned, knuckle first, and went to bang on the door, but only found itself hitting air. The door slid open on its own, detecting him as his fist had approached. The small shock temporarily whisked away the filter between his mind and mouth.

“Huh? It’s not locked?”

“Why would I lock it?”

Blitz’s voice came from the corner of the room, where he was inert on a bed with a purple blanket sprawled under him. The headphones of the matching color were still around his neck, and he held a blue screen above his head which he was seemingly reading from. Slater noticed the room was well lived in, with all sorts of music-related memorabilia and merchandise populating every corner. Keeping up the theme, a guitar and a drum set were even place in the corner opposite to the bed.

“I just thought—“

“I locked Charlotte out for a hell of a long time when she first got here, that didn’t end well.”

“I… See…” Slater’s eyes darted around, unsure where to take things next.

Sensing the tension increasing in his own bedroom and finding it getting on his nerves, Blitz turned his eyes from his literature without moving his head, seeing the boy in his door frame fidgeting and looking around.

“You came here to say something to me, didn’t you?”

The sudden reply made Slater jump, but he tried composing himself and giving a straight reply after a deep breath in.

“I just wanted to say… I apologize.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Huh?”

The man in the bed closed the blue screen floating above him, sitting up and turning to sit off the side of his bed, but still keeping eye contact with his visitor.

“You didn’t do anything, you can’t apologize for nothing.”

“Then why—“

“It’s got nothing to do with you.” He was blunt and forward, that’s all there was to it.

He gave a sigh and pushed himself up to a standing position, slipping his hands into his pockets as he walked forward and up to the doorway. His body towered over the boy as he looked down into his eyes. The experience was deathly familiar, as it was a faithful recreation of the scene from the same day.

“But I have something to ask you, new guy.” His stare made Slater take a step back instinctively. The gaze carried both a distance to it and a morbid curiosity. Like a man watching a plane take off from afar, wondering what the passengers could be thinking about at the moment. “What’s your plan? What do you want to accomplish here?”

The boy’s eyes widened for a moment, but soon after his hand went behind his head as he let out a carefree laugh.

“That’s all you wanna know? I mean, I’m not your enemy.”

“Charlotte and Lupus will accept you no matter what. I don’t have anything against you right now, but if you want me to accept you, tell me why you won’t just be a nuisance.” Blitz’s words came out almost as if explaining the rules to a game.

“Oh, well if that’s the case,” Slater’s laugh dropped, and his face emulated the stare of the man across from him. “See, back in the Western States, I didn’t have much.”

Blitz’s eyes began to relax hearing the boy’s answer and how fast it had come out.

“But, what I did have were people I cared about. I want those people to be safe, but… I haven’t done the best job of protecting them so far.” Slater’s eyes darted away, before he reestablished eye contact with a look much fiercer than before. “My sister’s in the hospital right now, and I don’t even know if she’ll make it. But if she’s there, no, because she’s there I need to do everything I can to make sure nobody I care about ends up like that again.”

When the man across from Slater heard those words, he felt himself have to take his own step back, his shoulders falling a bit and his mouth adjusting itself, hiding gritted teeth.

“We may all be guinea pigs here, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna stay in the cage they put me in and let myself laze around!” Slater took a defiant step forward, covering the ground Blitz had given up.

Blitz stood in stunned shock over the intensity of the new recruit’s reply.

“I see, so that’s how you feel.”

The man’s hand fell onto Slater’s white hair.

“Then let’s see how far that takes you.”

He gave a slight smirk, finally letting himself relax before turning around to lay down yet again. However he never got the chance, as his view suddenly changed as the wall became the ceiling and he felt himself fall backwards. Blitz’s head hit against the hard floor of the hallway, causing his hands to retract in pain to cover it.

“That hurts, dammit! What was that for?!”

He yelled at the recruit standing above him, who looked surprised himself.

“Oh, sorry—Lupus said my mission was to get you out of your room, so when you started heading back in I panicked and went for your leg…”

Slater’s sheepish response turned into a slight laugh, trying to play off his blunder.

“Your mission, huh?”

The smirk on Blitz’s face had now become a full fledged smile, as his own laugh started filling the hallway. By the time Lupus had noticed the noise and come to investigate, all he found were two boys laughing together at the door to a bedroom.

Seeing the boys’ happiness, he couldn’t help but display a bit of his own on his face.